Extensions

JM33 JM44 JM66 E1600 E1640 DH37K Fit? What to check: Foundation height: Base Floor Thickness Floor-to-Ceiling height: Overall Wall width and height Wall overhangs Foundation Construction style FLAT! slideshow Wall Cutout Wall Liner Oscillating Saw Jig Saw Utility knife Check the Stairs slideshow Move the stairhole New content is always being added	Extensions
	Q	Do I build the Extension separately?	A	I build Extensions up against the house on a very flat* table.
	FLAT! Check your table! When you build a dollhouse it acquires the shape of your workbench. Then, when you move it to it's display home, it is sitting on a table with its own shape. For most dollhouses, the difference isn't much and will never be noticed, particularly dollhouses with a one-piece front where the front itself controls how straight the house is. But when an Extension is added, if the workbench sags differently from the display surface, the results can take you by surprise. And, the longer the dollhouse/extension combo, the more it will show. I have one workbench (out of 5) that, when I pull a string side-to-side, front-to-back, and in both diagonals it shows very flat (not perfect (nothing is), but not anything I can see). I build all Dollhouse/Extension combinations on this table, the dollhouse first (check the stairs), and then the Extension up against the dollhouse. Then I know I have done my best to ensure that, if the display table is reasonably flat, the parts will line up nicely whether the customer glues them together or not. When I don't have a flat table (like at my grandkids house) or if I can't add a layer and shim it flat, I build add-ons separately (see the note below per foundations).
	Q	When do I attach the Extension to the house?	A	The best fit is achieved by building the Extension up against the house so all the tiny accommodations in how the parts glue to each other are constantly being fit to the house (see FLAT above!)...
	... but the most important moment in the assembly for a perfect fit is when gluing the Extension body to the foundation. An Extension can be glued to the house along the way (easiest, but might make moving it after assembly difficult), or after all the construction is done (long bands of tape wrapped all the way around the house and extension multiple times), or not glued at all.
	Q	When do I cut the door hole? (see "Wall Cutout" at left)	A	Cut the door hole at the point in the Extension assembly that you begin to handle the Liner.
	Q	I have the Alison Jr dollhouse and the shell is assembled. I have 2 Jr additions arriving today. My plan is to put one on either side of the dollhouse. My questions are, can I permanently attach the additions to the dollhouse? If so what would be the best way to attach them and can I cut a hole in the existing dollhouse wall to make a doorway? My plan is to add a mansard roof to both additions. My electrical kit should be arriving from you in the next day or two and I would like to add electricity to the house as well as the additions at the same time. Thanks for any advice you can offer. This is my first dollhouse but I'm an adventurous beginner.
	A	There's plenty of glue surface when attaching an addition to a house, with all the contact of the foundton, the Liners, and with the edges of all the walls up against the house walls. I build the Additions right up against the house so the fit is guaranteed, but make sure the workbench is either exactly flat (most aren't), or is the table on which the final house is going to be displayed so the sag in the table is matched by the sag in the house. https://www.dollhouseworkshop.net/RGT/Additions/Flat/Flat.html Best practices is to trace every point-of-contact, then scrape the paint to expose wood for the glue to grab... don't scrape all the way to the mark, though, so the transition from painted to scraped stays hidden in the joint. Here's a slideshow of cutting a doorhole with links to different cutting tools: https://www.dollhouseworkshop.net/RGT/Blogs/Cutouts/UtilityKnifeCutout.html The position of the stairs on the right side of the house will overlap a doorway. I usually move the stairs 1" toward the front when I put an addition on the right of an Alison. It does crowd the front a bit, but it's not easily visible from the back of the house, especially once furnishings are in place. If you cut a door hole on both floors, it does require some patching (particularly if you are going to add banister/landing rails like the 6803 or J-FK) as it makes the stair hole too big, so it needs a 1" patch (that's mostly hidden by the stairs). See the "Oscillating Multitool" recommendation below. It takes a kerf small enough so the piece removed can be re-used for a patch. Doors into the Additions are going through a 1/2" thick wall (the house wall plus the liner) so extension jambs will be needed. I like the 3/16 x 3/32 stripwood for this job: https://www.realgoodtoys.com/search?q=stripwood Although Wiring the Alison along-the-way while building is far easier, this page: https://www.dollhouseworkshop.net/RGT/907/907Wiring.html has steps that can be followed at any time, and more that are labeled "after construction" just for you. After-Construction steps are always less complicated if you have the use of an oscillating multitool which I use for cutting holes (like the stairhole expansion and the doorways), and new electrification slots like you will be cutting to get the tapewire to the Attic.